Psy-Flex: Assessing Psychological Flexibility in a Clinical Sample

Abstract

The psychological flexibility model provides a transdiagnostic framework where disorders can be treated differently from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. There is growing evidence in support of psychological flexibility being an important factor for wellbeing and linking its shortage with psychopathology. The Psy-Flex is a self-measure questionnaire of six items that aims to assess all the six components of psychological flexibility. This research has three different aims. The first aim is to investigate if the Psy-Flex can discriminate between a clinical and a non-clinical sample. The second purpose is to investigate whether the Psy-Flex can differentiate between PTSD and depression samples. The third aim is to compare the Pys-Flex with PTSD checklist for DSM5 (PCL-5) and the State-trait Anxiety Index (STAI-6) to validate its construct validity. To do so, a questionnaire composed by the Psy-Flex, four items of PCL-5 and five items of STAI-6 was developed. The survey was then distributed to a pool of university students and to specific social media groups. The result shows that the Psy-Flex yields significant different scores between individuals from a clinical sample and a non-clinical sample, but it fails to distinguish PTSD from depression, making it a useful screening tool but an unreliable tool for differential diagnosis. The results are further supportive of the construct validity of the Psy-Flex when compared to the PCL-5 and STAI-6. Future research should focus on developing cut-off scores of the Psy-Flex to be used in the discrimination process between clinical and non-clinical cases.